Afghanistan registers first win against Pakistan in T20 cricket

Afghanistan beat Pakistan by six wickets in the series opener on Friday, the Afghan side’s first T20 win over its neighbours.

Pakistan, without five rested front-line players, including captain Babar Azam, struggled on a slow and low pitch at Sharjah Cricket Stadium in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after opting to bat first.

Pakistan handed T20I debuts to Saim Ayub, Tayyab Tahir, Ihsanullah and Zaman Khan. But none of the Pakistan batters could accelerate on a two-paced pitch and mostly fell to soft dismissals.

Shadab Khan won the toss and elected to bat first in the first T20 match against Afghanistan in Sharjah. However, the decision backfired on the visiting team as Afghanistan’s seamers were excellent with the new ball and got it moving in both directions. 

New to international cricket, the young opening pair of Mohammad Haris and Saim Ayub looked flummoxed against the swinging ball. They could only add 17 runs to the total in the first three overs before Fazalhaq Farooqi dismissed the former on six. Three balls later, Pakistan’s number three Abdullah Shafique was sent back to the pavilion by Azmatullah Omarzai for a two-ball duck to reduce Pakistan to 22/2.

Pakistan could never really recover from the early jolts and kept losing wickets on a consistent basis. On debut, Saim Ayub played some delightful strokes to showcase his talent. However his stay at the crease was cut short by Naveen-ul-Haq, who castled him on the last delivery of the first powerplay. 

Pakistan needed a miracle to save them from a humiliating defeat against their neighbours.

Although the target did not seem too challenging, the Pakistan bowlers were not going down without a fight.

With some high-quality bowlers in their ranks, it was never going to be an easy task for Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s chase seemed to have been derailed as they looked in trouble at 45/4.

But the returning Nabi continued his excellence and showed his class, building an unbeaten partnership with Najibullah Zadran to guide Afghanistan home comfortably with more than two overs to spare.

Pakistan will hope to bounce back from this loss in the second T20I on March 27, while Afghanistan sit on the cusp of sealing a historic series win.